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Orange County baseball standings: Saturday, March 23

St. John Bosco baseball overpowered by Servite in Trinity League loss

Huntington Beach baseball beats Fountain Valley with contributions from several players

Fryer: Orange County All-Star Baseball Game needs help to keep going

Pacifica pitchers throw no-hitters in back-to-back baseball games

Orange County Register

Iva Lee’s in San Clemente closing — Detroit-style pizza restaurant to take over space

March 25, 2024

After more than two decades, Iva Lee’s, the San Clemente food and live music destination that specialized in Southern-influenced fare, will close its doors for good on Saturday, March 30.

“After 21 remarkable years of serving the community, Iva Lee’s has come to the conclusion to close our doors on March 30th,” owners Lisa and Eric Wagoner announced on Friday, March 22. “We have had amazing customers, employees, and vendors throughout our journey and we cannot thank our customers enough for all the support we received and all the memories you shared with us.”

Well wishes and bittersweet sentiments poured in following the announcement. “Thank you, Eric, for not only giving 6 Ways 2 Sunday the opportunity to play some great music in front of some fantastic people and outstanding staff, but it was the first place that I was actually able to follow through on my passion of singing on a stage with a band since I was a kid,” wrote Matthew Mitchell. “I’m so sad to hear this news. Iva Lee’s has given me so many fabulous memories,” noted patron Andrew Swingler.

The owners went on to quash speculation that an alleged rent increase caused the closure, stating, “The decision to close comes after much contemplation and consideration of various factors. Despite the challenges faced by the restaurant industry, we want to emphasize that the closure is not due to rent increases by our landlords.”

For its final service, Iva Lee’s will host a farewell celebration featuring live music on Sunday, March 31. The owners will host a private dinner the following day for friends and family for one a final hurrah with 50 percent of the evening’s proceeds going to staff. Iva Lee’s stood as one of the few remaining South County venues where people could come for food and dancing while hearing a band hit the floorboards.

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In its stead, neighboring Gibroni’s Detroit Style Pizza, which closed its 215 S. El Camino Real location on Feb. 1, will reopen inside the Iva Lee’s space. “Iva Lee’s sold their business to us,” said Tony Gioutsos, owner of Gibroni’s Detroit Style Pizza. “We assume the lease next week and have a few weeks of renovations.”

Gibroni’s Detroit Style Pizza, which started out as a pop-up in 2020, landed on the Washington Post’s pizzeria feature (“The Best Pizza in America: Region By Region”) in September 2023. The comprehensive article analyzed 7.5 million Yelp reviews of pizzerias to figure out which regional-style restaurants scored the most and highest ratings. Gibroni’s Detroit Style Pizza ranked No. 5 in California. Over the last few years, Detroit-style pizza — noted for its square slices, thick yet pillowy crusts and cheese cooked underneath the sauce and crisped up at the edges – has gained traction as a popular pie.

Gioutsos hopes to open Gibroni’s on April 25.

Orange County Register

In CA-45 race, Rep. Michelle Steel and Derek Tran will face off in November

March 25, 2024

Republican Rep. Michelle Steel and Democrat Derek Tran appear poised to advance to the general election for California’s 45th congressional district race — a contest closely watched by both parties this year.

While Steel has consistently led the pack since the March 5 primary, the race was extremely close for the second-place spot. As of Monday morning in Orange and Los Angeles counties — both served by CA-45 — 366 votes separated Tran and Democrat Kim Nguyen-Penaloza, a Garden Grove councilmember who conceded over the weekend.

“It’s time to call it. Unfortunately, I did not win my bid for CA-45,” Nguyen-Penaloza said in a post on X (formerly Twitter). “When I made the decision to run in January 2023, I really thought I could do it. … I felt in my heart I could be the representative we deserve. Someone who walks in our shoes, understands our struggles and who will fight so we can live out our American dream.”

See the latest election results.

Tran, in his own statement on X, thanked Nguyen-Penaloza and said he is honored to be the Democratic nominee for CA-45. A first-time candidate, Tran has said he plans to address the gun violence epidemic, advocate for women’s rights and fight the effects of climate change.

“In the Army, I swore an oath to serve this country, and in November we will defeat corrupt Michelle Steel and provide true representation to the people of CA-45,” he said.

On Monday, Steel thanked her supporters in an emailed statement.

“Southern California families deserve and need someone in Washington who won’t raise their taxes and who will always fight to lower them,” said Steel. “I support lower taxes, more freedom, less spending, an America that challenges the Chinese Communist Party and a secure border.”

“My English may be broken, but my voice is loud and positions clear,” she said.

The race for CA-45 attracted several candidates, including Democrats Aditya Pai, an affordable housing attorney, and Cheyenne Hunt, a policy advocate. Both have since conceded.

CA-45 is one of several Republican-held House districts that went for President Joe Biden in 2020 and where registered Democrats in the district outnumber registered Republicans. As of Feb. 20, according to data from the secretary of state’s office, the district includes 36.9% registered Democrats, 33.3% Republicans and 23.8% no party preference.

In November, more than 752,000 people in the district, home to the largest Vietnamese enclave outside of Vietnam, will get to choose who represents them in Congress for the next two years: a Republican of Korean descent or a Democrat with Vietnamese roots.

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Steel, first elected in 2020, became one of the first Korean American women to serve in Congress along with fellow Republican Rep. Young Kim and Democratic Rep. Marilyn Strickland of Washington.

Tran is the son of Vietnamese refugees who fled communist Vietnam by boat in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, arriving in Southern California.

Ballot counting is still ongoing, and county elections officials have until April 2 to report final results to the secretary of state, who will certify results on April 12.

The OC Registrar of Voters certified its primary results on Friday, March 22. The LA Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk said all outstanding ballots left to be processed in Los Angeles County are pending signature cures from voters who did not sign their return envelopes or had signatures that did not match their registration record. LA results are scheduled to be certified on Friday, March 29.

Orange County Register

Photos: The Easter Bunny makes an early appearance in Anaheim Hills

March 25, 2024

Three brothers have a different take on the Easter Bunny as they get their picture taken during the Anaheim Hills Rotary Club Easter Festival on Sunday, March 24, 2024. Big brother Aiden Russell, 4, smiles as twins Levi, 1, center, looks tentative and Miles is ready to go home. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

With yellow caution tape a reminder for kids to resist the urge of starting the Easter egg hunt early, children stop in the morning and look longingly at the colorful display during the Anaheim Hills Rotary Club Easter Festival on Sunday, March 24, 2024. The egg hunt started later in the day. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Easter eggs painted by children at the Anaheim Hills Rotary Club Easter Festival on Sunday, March 24, 2024, are minature pieces of art. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

As Sergio Sanchez’s mother takes his picture, Preacher pokes his head in and appears to smile for the camera during the Anaheim Hills Rotary Club Easter Festival on Sunday, March 24, 2024. The horse belongs to Anaheim Police officer Ryan Nichols with the monted police. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Elise Yung, 6, gets some egg-decorating assistance from her mom, Kat, during the Anaheim Hills Rotary Club Easter Festival on Sunday, March 24, 2024. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Mino Olores-Prevatt, 8, gives the Easter Bunny a hug during the Anaheim Hills Rotary Club Easter Festival on Sunday, March 24, 2024. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Kate Baker, 2, greets Anaheim Police officer Ryan Nichols’ horse, Preacher, during the Anaheim Hills Rotary Club Easter Festival on Sunday, March 24, 2024. Baker says his 13-year-old Quarter Horse is sensitive, quick, and well-trained to deal with crowds. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Three-year-old Oak Alvarado swings joyfully as her mother Desiree Khemtongpru pushes her during the Anaheim Hills Rotary Club Easter Festival on March 24, 2024. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Four-Year-old Phoebe Pare mimics the Easter Bunny while she and Cooper Baumen, also 4, get their picture taken during the Anaheim Hills Rotary Club Festival on Sunday, March 24, 2024. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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The Easter Bunny hopped into town early.

The special guest was a hit at the Anaheim Hills Rotary Club’s annual egg hunt and festival on Sunday. The always popular event was held at Ronald Reagan Park; eggs blanketing the park’s grassy field for children to grab and enjoy the surprises inside.

There was also egg decorating, activities for families and photos with the Easter Bunny.

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Orange County Register

President Zelensky is an international star. At home, it’s more complicated

March 25, 2024

Regular presidential elections should have taken place in Ukraine this month.

But on day one of Russia’s full-scale invasion of our country, Ukraine’s government introduced martial law, under which presidential, parliamentary, and local elections are all suspended. Instead of getting to vote, my peers and I are stuck with a president we did not vote for, but whose image has changed drastically since February 24, 2022.

Has Ukraine’s democracy become another victim of war?

Though our country’s democracy has roots dating back to practices instituted by the ancient Greeks who arrived to the territory of today’s Ukraine in the sixth century BCE, its modern instantiation of democratic rule is still in the making.

In May 2014, I stood in a queue outside a school in a post-industrial residential Kyiv neighborhood on the left bank of the Dnipro River. Inside were voting booths for the presidential election, which had been announced several months after the previous president fled the country. I remember the mood well: there was a consensus in the air that we needed to have a fast, transparent election.

The president who had fled, Viktor Yanukovych, had won office in a 2010 run-off election in which the opposition claimed there was systematic vote fraud. In office, Yanukovych had gone against the wish of most Ukrainians by declining to join the European Union. Instead, in 2013, he had announced intentions to join the Russia-backed Eurasian Economic Union. This would have made Ukraine economically dependent on its imperial neighbor.

In November 2013, hundreds of people, mostly students and activists, gathered at the Maidan Nezalezhnosti (“Independence Square”) in Kyiv to protest his decision. The protests swelled. On the last day of November, police brutally beat protestors, and the next day, even more people came to the square, turning it into a protest camp with stages, broadcasting facilites, first aid posts, and self-defense units. It was the largest amount of people to ever gather there. In February, when police attacked, violent clashes sparked and killed 100 protestors, known as the Heavenly Hundred.

Their actions made history. This was the Revolution of Dignity, the moment when Ukrainian society resolutely separated itself from Russia. The country wanted change. The elections that followed were supposed to provide it.

Those elections resulted in the victory of Petro Poroshenko, an old-school politician- businessman. There was no runoff: He won the first round with more than 50% of the vote. This was the second time that this had happened. The first was in 1991, when Leonid Kravchuk got 61% at the elections held simultaneously with the referendum for Ukrainian independence. (90% of the populace voted in favor of independence.)

Thinking about 1991 and 2014, I ask myself: Do these decisive victories demonstrate that Ukrainian society has an ability to mobilize quickly again in times of radical transformation? Such major upheavals seem to happen here every 10 years—and we’re living in one now. What happens next? Can we keep hold of the democracy we’ve made?

Looking back to 2014 with hindsight, I can see that Poroshenko seemed to be the best-equipped candidate to lead the country: He was a diplomat by education, had experience in state finance and was a businessman, which meant—at that time—that he had a lot to lose. Russian troops were in the country then, as now. Crimea, as well as parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the east of the country, were already occupied by Russia. And back then, many Ukrainians volunteered to go fight on the newly formed frontline.

In 2014, the starting war was a reason to hold elections. Sensing the upcoming turmoil, everyone wanted to at least secure the names of those who would govern the country in the near future. Parliamentary elections were held that year, too, and with them the process of government formation began. It was bumpy and imperfect, but fueled by an eagerness for a democratic transformation.

Ukrainian voters value the ability to bring about regular changes of power. Winning one election—even if, like Poroshenko, you win on a wave of post-revolutionary adrenaline—does not guarantee that you’ll remain in your comfy chair for longer than one term.

With Poroshenko, this was the case. In 2019, he lost by nearly a 50% margin to an ambitious, young candidate who had appeared straight from show business. You may know him: Volodymyr Zelensky.

The majority of my generational and political bubble, people between 30 and 40 years old who had devoted our most energetic years to secure post-Maidan transformations, did not vote for Zelensky. We took his promises to fight the corruption and nepotism of the country with skepticism. They mirrored too much his onscreen alter ego in the popular TV series Servant of the People, a history teacher who becomes president after a passionate anti-corruption rant that goes viral. Our universe of “highbrow” intellectual and political culture clashed with “lowbrow” TV that apparently had broken into the real world.

Under the banner of an ambitious effort for “efficiency,” Zelensky and the head of his administration gradually concentrated political power in the executive office even before the full-scale war started in 2022. Because the majority of seats in parliament are held by Zelensky’s party, Servant of the People (yes, it’s named after his TV show), his office had the backing to initiate a number of reforms, many of which were criticized by civil society institutions.

After Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine’s resistance catapulted Zelensky to heroism. He gained the stardom he had once wanted from show biz. It wasn’t undeserved: Skeptics from 2019, including me, were touched and proud on February 25, 2022, when he released a video from Bankova Street proving that he hadn’t left the country and was going to stay and fight.

But two years later, our adrenaline and feelings of pride have waned. Society needs more than just powerful speeches that finish with “Glory to Ukraine!” The dilemma that many journalists initially faced in 2022—whether or not to criticize the country’s governing figures in wartime—has been resolved, and not in the leaders’ favor. Journalists have brought back their anti-corruption investigations, while citizens are holding some civil demonstrations, even despite their prohibition under martial law.

Despite this, most Ukrainians don’t feel an urgent need to hold elections. In a country of 43 million, 6 million have fled the country, 4 million are internally displaced, and hundreds of thousands are serving in the army. Almost 20% of Ukrainian territory is currently occupied by Russia and significantly more is being constantly shelled. Elections, at least on the national level, don’t feel crucial at the moment.

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With two revolutions in the last 20 years behind us, we are instead strengthening our skills of maintaining democracy by challenging our leaders. Though we are fans of fast political changes that resemble spectacular sprints, we’ve come to a moment at which we need to learn how to run a marathon.

What does that look like? This means fighting against unjust governmental decisions in courts, organizing advocacy campaigns for the rightful legislation, monitoring (via NGOs) all spheres of social and political life, and taking action when something is not right. It also means planning for the future by adopting the laws necessary to enter the European Union.

Our president may be an international star with multiple Time magazine covers, but he still must serve his people. We are not voting this spring, but we will not miss a chance to remind him of that.

Daria Badior is a critic, journalist and editor based in Kyiv, Ukraine. She co-curates the Kyiv Critics’ Week films festival and is writing a book about the post-Maidan generation of culture-makers. This was written for Zócalo Public Square.

Orange County Register

Researchers unveil new blood test that detects colon cancer

March 25, 2024

Elise Takahama | (TNS) The Seattle Times

Researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center have unveiled a new type of blood test used to detect colorectal cancer, with high hopes not only in its ability to reduce barriers to testing for this particular disease, but also potentially pave the way for many other types of cancer screenings.

The study, published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine, analyzed results from nearly 8,000 people throughout the country between ages 45 and 84 and compared results of their blood tests to those of a colonoscopy. In all, the new test accurately detected colorectal cancer 83% of the time, which is “at least equal and maybe better than” a commonly used stool-based detection test, said Dr. William Grady, medical director of Fred Hutch’s gastrointestinal cancer prevention program and who led the study.

“We have a lot of people who are dying from a preventable cancer,” Grady said. “And the reason is they’re not doing colon cancer screenings. This is a real opportunity to improve that and prevent those deaths. That’s why I get excited about it.”

Colorectal cancer is the third-most diagnosed cancer and second-leading cause of cancer-related deaths among adults in the U.S., according to the paper. About 53,000 people are expected to die from the disease this year. Colorectal cancer is also increasingly being detected in younger people, with 20% of 2019 diagnoses in patients under 55 — almost double the rate reported in 1995, according to the American Cancer Society.

The trend prompted the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which regulates and makes recommendations when to complete certain screenings, in 2021 to lower the age to begin colon cancer testing to 45, five years earlier than previously recommended.

While researchers are still trying to understand what’s driving the change, higher obesity rates, more sedentary lifestyles and diets that include more processed foods are likely contributors, Grady said.

But early detection can significantly increase survival rates — jumping from 14% among those with metastatic cancer to a five-year survival rate of about 91% among those diagnosed at early stages, according to the Guardant Health-funded study. Still, just 59% of those eligible for screenings get tested.

“I think this is an enormous breakthrough,” said Dr. Rachel Issaka, a Fred Hutch gastroenterologist and colorectal cancer researcher who co-authored the paper. “We have another tool in our arsenal that allows people to have a noninvasive and easy way to potentially complete colon cancer screening.”

She noted the new test does not replace the colonoscopy, which identifies and removes precancerous lesions, and remains the “gold standard” for colon cancer screenings and prevention. But because the more involved procedure isn’t always easily accessible to everyone, especially communities of color and lower-income populations, Issaka is optimistic the new option can help boost screening rates and, ultimately, lower deaths.

Because blood tests are generally more convenient, relatively painless and have minimal risk involved, cancer researchers, including Grady, have considered it for decades as a tool in cancer detection, he said. Testing and analysis techniques, however, weren’t ever sophisticated enough to make it a realistic option, Grady said.

Then two “really big breakthroughs” came along, he said.

The first had to do with scientists’ ability to extract tumor cells’ DNA from the blood and process it, which has been developed and optimized over the last decade.

The second milestone involved “next-generation sequencing,” or analyzing DNA in ways that were sensitive enough to detect the rare tumor DNA present in the blood, Grady said. This sequencing has “rapidly advanced over the last 20-plus years,” including in ways to identify potential biomarkers, he added.

Next-generation sequencing hasn’t yet been widely used in cancer detection tests, but Grady’s excitement about the possibilities was evident.

“I think this [colon cancer] test is going to usher in a wave of other types of screening tests,” he said, pointing to ongoing clinical trials that screen people at risk for lung cancer and research around breast cancer blood tests. “Could you replace mammograms with this? I’m going to guess those types of studies will be coming out in the next few years.”

Despite enthusiasm around new technologies — including artificial intelligence’s role in more efficient data analysis — Issaka stressed an importance to pay attention to how these and future tests are rolled out in clinical spaces. It’s always the hope these interventions improve disparities, she said, but “it could also have unintended consequences of widening disparities if we’re not careful.”

Issaka’s lab at Fred Hutch keeps this mission at the heart of its work, specifically focusing on identifying and introducing solutions that reduce racial and ethnic disparities and improve colorectal cancer outcomes. Black and Indigenous communities, for example, report disproportionately high rates of colon cancer diagnosis and deaths, in part because of inadequate screenings, Issaka said.

“If people have more options that are convenient for them, they are more likely to participate in colon cancer screening, and we can pick up earlier cases where treatments are most effective,” she said.

In the past several years, her team has explored a number of strategies, including a program that mails stool-based tests (also known as Fecal Immunochemical Tests, or FIT) to 15,000 to 20,000 Seattle-area homes per year. The program identifies people eligible for colon cancer screenings, and checks in with patients to ensure they’re completing the tests. If someone has an abnormal result, the team works with them to schedule a follow-up colonoscopy.

Because transportation has also been identified as a common barrier to receiving a colonoscopy, Issaka’s team partnered with a service to coordinate rides for patients to and from their procedure.

At a recent community screening and educational event in the Central District, feedback from nearly 150 attendees was “overwhelmingly positive” in learning about the disease and how to find resources, Issaka said. The annual workshop, this year partnered with the First African Methodist Episcopal Church, provided information on what symptoms are, ways to reduce risk and how to get up-to-date with screenings, she added.

“Our goal is to bring as much awareness about this disease to these communities as possible,” Issaka said.

The blood test is still awaiting approval from the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, but Grady expects it should receive the endorsements this year.

___

Orange County Register

Chrysalis and CalOptima Health develop program to get formerly homeless people working in shelters

March 25, 2024

Weldon Haywood lived on the streets for a decade and had been arrested for public intoxication multiple times.

So, when an Anaheim police officer stopped him at the back of a liquor store a little more than a year ago, he expected to be arrested again. But instead, the officer offered him a lifeline – a connection to a homeless shelter and a substance use program.

Weldon Haywood greets Employment Specialist Chi Okafor at Chrysalis in Anaheim, CA on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 202. Chrysalis helps unhoused, or formerly unhoused, folks re-enter the workforce through its job-readiness program, supportive services and paid transitional employment. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A bell sits in the lobby at Chrysalis in Anaheim, CA on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 202. When a client gets a job they ring the bell in celebration. Chrysalis helps unhoused, or formerly unhoused, folks re-enter the workforce through its job-readiness program, supportive services and paid transitional employment. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Employment Specialist Chi Okafor talks with client Weldon Haywood at Chrysalis in Anaheim, CA on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 202. Chrysalis helps unhoused, or formerly unhoused, folks re-enter the workforce through its job-readiness program, supportive services and paid transitional employment. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Weldon Haywood, here in Anaheim, CA on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024, has been getting housing and skills assistance from Chrysalis for the past year. Chrysalis helps unhoused, or formerly unhoused, folks re-enter the workforce through its job-readiness program, supportive services and paid transitional employment. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Volunteer Harald Weiss teaches a job prep class called The Interview at Chrysalis in Anaheim, CA on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024. Chrysalis helps unhoused, or formerly unhoused, folks re-enter the workforce through its job-readiness program, supportive services and paid transitional employment. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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Now, Haywood is celebrating a year of sobriety, is looking for an apartment and he is working as a site attendant at Illumination Foundation, a homeless shelter and recuperative care center in Fullerton. And, he is using his personal experience being homeless to connect and empathize with the people the center serves.

The job is thanks to a partnership between CalOptima Health and Chrysalis, a nonprofit that helps people find employment. The partnership’s goal is to give houseless folks the tools and confidence to exit homelessness, remedy staffing issues in shelters and end the cycle of poverty that can keep some people living on the streets. Since late last summer, Chrysalis has placed 22 formerly unhoused people to work in different shelters throughout Orange County.

Chrysalis has been operating in Anaheim since 2018, helping homeless people and those re-entering society from the criminal justice system get back to work.

“We’ve got transitional businesses that many of our participants utilize to transition from homelessness to self-sufficiency,” Trevor Kale, vice president at Chrysalis, said. “So they’re using transitional jobs with us to work for a period of time while they’re gaining the skills and stability to move from a period of homelessness to a period of self-sufficiency.”

Those temporary jobs with Chrysalis include road and freeway maintenance, as well as janitorial and customer service roles.

Chrysalis, with funding support of about $1.1 million per year from CalOptima, takes people from those existing staffing programs and gets them employed in shelters like those managed by the Illumination Foundation. By doing this, the organizations find that they can get more people working in short-staffed shelters and help their formerly unhoused clients continue to move forward toward financial independence.

After completing rehab, Haywood was referred to Chrysalis and started working for its roads program, cleaning up freeways while also attending job-readiness training classes. Chrysalis staff identified Haywood as a good candidate for the shelter position, and he was more than excited to work at showing others a way out of homelessness.

“Immediately I was like, damn, what are the odds of me being homeless, and now I’m going to be working in a homeless shelter?” Haywood said. “I enjoy it because I can tell people, ‘Hey man, you need to get your stuff together while you’re here. Don’t just waste time. If you’re going to be here, just do what I did. If they tell you to do something, just do it. Take your resources and move up.’”

Haywood’s ability to use his personal experience to uplift other people in the shelter is exactly why CalOptima and Chrysalis joined together, officials said.

“We were consistently hearing the same message from providers,” said Kelly Bruno-Nelson, executive director of Medi-Cal/CalAIM for CalOptima Health. “And that message was, ‘Listen CalOptima Health, we would love to expand services and help more folks, but we simply don’t have the workforce. There is a shortage of individuals that can work in our shelters.’ And equally, we have a partner like Chrysalis saying, ‘We have lots of individuals with lived experience that would like to exit homelessness and be self-sufficient, but they cannot find a job.’

“It just made logical sense to bring the two together,” she said.

Chrysalis designed a training program specifically for those working in homeless shelters that covered topics such as trauma-informed care and harm reduction. CalOptima Health pays for the first three months of employment once a person is placed at a shelter. Each staffer is paid $18 an hour. The goal, Bruno-Nelson said, is that these folks wind up getting hired full-time.

Haywood is on track to become a full-time staff member.

Being a site attendant, Haywood said, is a very hands-on job. He’s responsible for cleaning, getting clients hygiene products, picking up their medicine and more. He said the most stressful part of the job can be seeing clients not live up to their full potential.

“It’s like when you see a person who spends so much energy on something that doesn’t mean anything. And you know that if they spend that much energy on something positive, that can actually get them somewhere,” Haywood said. “I just focus on what I’m there to do, and focus on the people that do because some of them really are tired, some of them really want to get out of there.”

Once a person is employed, Chrysalis keeps up with them through case management and supportive programming.

“Oftentimes we’ve got good relationships with the shelter sites and we’ll speak with them if there’s an issue on the job to try and make sure that we get through that bump or that learning opportunity,” Kale said. “In the workforce development space with this population, the data shows if you can hold down employment for six months, your life trajectory changes significantly. Our goal is to always get to that six-month mark with folks and then support them to take it from there.”

Now, sober, with a job and a roof over his head, Haywood has purchased his ticket to Florida to reunite with his two children.

His daughter is gearing up to graduate high school in a few months. Seeing her cross that stage to receive her diploma has been a driving force in his journey toward sobriety and exiting homelessness, Haywood said.

“I haven’t seen my daughter, or my son, in about 11 years,” he said. “It’s going to be one of those moments where I don’t know if I’m just going to start crying as soon as I see them. I told my daughter, I’m going to try holding it all in and she’s like, ‘No, just let it out, dad.’”

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